Fallout
by FirstUnmannedFlyingDeskset
Summary: A songfic based on the song Fallout by Mariana's Trench. In which Neil is an arsehole and uses Charlie until Todd comes along and he leaves him. Insecure Charlie. Arsehole Neil. Nice Cameron.Unrequited: Charlie x Neil Friendship: Cameron x Charlie


AN: I do not own Dead Poets Society (directed by Peter Weir) Also this is kind of a weird story for me to write because I normally ship Anderperry/Nodd and Cheeks and I love Neil and normally hate Cameron but this fic just came to me. I am sorry for the Charlie feels and Neil's arseholiness xD Enjoy :3

Charlie sat alone in his room watching the boy who should be with him walk across the courtyard hands intertwined with that shy, anxious day dreamer Todd Anderson. Neil could do so much better.

And he had done better before that golden haired pretty boy had arrived. They had been happy or so he had thought. But Neil Perry clearly did not agree if he could drop Charlie as soon as someone newer, shinier and less damaged showed up.

Charlie felt pathetic letting him get to him so. But what was he meant to do? Forget it ever happened and move on? He had had feelings for his best friend for 8 years god damn it! Sure Neil and he had only started dating a year and a half ago. If you could call months sneaking around and hiding their relationship from everyone including their friends, dating. And, come to think if you could call Neil one day confessing his love for Charlie and then leaving him before morning cold and alone, pretending that nothing had happened the next day a relationship…

Charlie often wondered why he let Neil put him through all that emotional bullshit. He was Charlie Dalton for Christ sake, he could get anyone he wanted! The only problem was he wanted Neil.

The worst part is that Charlie couldn't hate him. However he could hate Todd. He knew it was petty but he was sick of seeing that kiss ass preppy boy get everything he had ever wanted. He and Neil had to hide their relationship from certain people yes (it was the 1960's after all) but in the company of their friends and Mr Keating the boys could express their affection for each other.

If Charlie had been a malicious person he would have made the headmaster and Mr Nolan aware of the two boys and also roommate's situation. Or informed the bigoted and blatantly homophobic Mr Perry of his son's little predicament. But as much pain as Neil had caused him he still loved him and couldn't bring himself the hurt him back although he wished he could.

One of the things that made it worse is that Neil completely ignored any tension between himself and Charlie and continued to act as if they were just best friends who had never had or even considered having a romantic or sexual relationship. Even now when Neil was 'happy' with Todd he would still corner Charlie in between classes or send him flirty notes right under his 'boyfriend' nose.

That was what destroyed Charlie the most that after everything Neil had done still had the same effect on him. Even when he knew his heart belong to someone else and that he was nothing more than someone to have sex with and big up his already massive ego, Charlie was powerless against Neil and his excruciating effect on his fragile heart.

And Charlie simply went along with it…

No one would have known about his pain if he hadn't accidently woken and spilled his guts to the person he least expected in a fit of hysteria at 2am.

The last thing Charlie expected to come out of Richard 'Dick' Cameron's mouth when Charlie had told him why he was crying was "Oh Charlie I am so sorry."

He has spent the next few hours going through every emotion he could comprehend.

Yelling about how much he hated Neil for doing this to him and at himself for being so weak.

Sobbing in to Richards surprisingly comfortable shoulder and soaking his pyjama shirt with tears

And Richard didn't tell him he was stupid for loving Neil or to stop letting Neil take advantage of him. He simply held him close to his chest and mumbled comforting things in Charlie's ear. Uncharacteristic of Richard Cameron many people would think. But really it was more that no one had ever come to him before. Charlie had Neil and Meeks had Pitts. No one had ever needed nor wanted him before. As awful as Nuwanda predicament was Dick was just glad that he could be there, that Charlie wanted him there.

As the night progressed Charlie began to cry less and smile more. He began saying things like 'I don't need Neil Perry nor anyone else to make me happy' and that he hoped that Todd developed really bad acne. Charlie then went on to question what to do next now that he was 'so over Neil Perry' and that 'Charlie Dalton sex god' was 'back on the market' if Cameron was interested.

The night ended with Richard tucking a very sleepy Charlie Dalton into his bed at twenty past five in the morning shaking his head and wishing he could do more to help. Also, although it was technically meddling he would make sure that all of the other boys knew what Neil had been doing to Charlie, how much he had hurt him.

He wanted the other poets to realise that the boy who was always so cocky and confident was only human. That he had been through so much more than they knew. He wanted them to know the true meaning of Charlie's Nuwanda façade, that it was a way of distancing himself from the boy whose heart was so delicate and so easily broken.

As the sun began to rise Richard climbed into his small bed still rather angry, he had decided to confront Neil about the emotional damage he had inflicted on his friend in the morning. This made him smile, Charlie Dalton was still an arse and teased him mercilessly but he was finally his friend…

The next morning Charlie was woken by loud cheering and jeering in the corridor outside, which he brushed off as the usual hoi polloi of Helton on a weekend. That is before an obnoxiously loud Knox Overstreet burst into the room yelling "Dick punched Neil!" Charlie chuckled softly before quickly pulling on his dressing gown and following Knox and Stephen down the corridor towards his very shocked, preppy, arsehole ex-lover and his smug and bruised newly acquired friend.


End file.
